NORRISTOWN - A former Conshohocken weight loss doctor implied he was "completely out of my mind," wracked by grief over the death of his wife, when he groped or sexually assaulted five female patients.

"During my 40 years of dealing with patients I have always served their interests. It never crossed my mind to harm them," Dr. Arie Oren, 66, said Thursday before he learned his fate for his crimes of indecency. "I cannot comprehend how I was capable of this. I must have been completely out of my mind at the time this happened."

Montgomery County Judge Joseph A. Smyth sentenced Oren, who once operated his Conshohocken Weight Control office in the 100 block of West Third Avenue, to 4 ½ to 9 years in a state correctional facility. Last September, a jury convicted Oren of four counts of aggravated indecent assault and five counts of indecent assault in connection with the inappropriate contact he had with five women between 2008 and 2010.

During the trial, Oren, of the 500 block of Fairview Road, Lower Merion, adamantly denied any wrongdoing. But as he addressed the judge Thursday he appeared to take some responsibility for his actions.

"I am devastated by what has happened to me and my patients. I wish, I pray and I hope they could forgive me," said Oren, claiming to have once been named doctor of the year in his native Israel. "I love my work. I love my patients and always served them to the best of my capability."

But Oren, at times quoting philosophers of medicine during his 15 minute speech, indicated his conduct was not for sexual gratification, claiming that as a well-to-do widower he did not lack for female companionship at the time. Oren indicated he was fighting extreme grief over the 2010 death of his wife and guilt about not being able to save her from cancer at the time the allegations were lodged against him.

"I began to lose my mind when my wife was first diagnosed with this disease," Oren told the judge as he rocked back and forth at the defense table.

Oren, according to other defense testimony, spent long hours at his wife's gravesite, had his deceased wife's clothes altered to fit women he dated afterward and even asked one companion to undergo plastic surgery to look like his deceased wife. Oren also drove drunk and at high speeds while experiencing intermittent suicidal tendencies, defense witnesses claimed.

But Assistant District Attorney Jordan Friter argued the doctor "committed the worst violation of trust" and sought a state prison sentence against Oren.

"These victims sought him out for weight loss. This defendant knew these women were vulnerable. When he had them right where he wanted them, in the exam room, he would prey on them," Friter argued, adding bereavement is no excuse for Oren's conduct. "What we have here is someone who was a serial predator."

Friter, who was assisted by co-prosecutor Noah Marlier, said the victims will "be thinking about what he did for the rest of their lives."

"I came to this man for help and he took a piece of me that I can never get back. This man took an oath to help people. Instead of helping he hurt them," the woman testified.

Defense lawyers David A. Tornetta and J. David Farrell represented Oren at trial. But defense lawyer Timothy Woodward was hired by Oren to represent him at the sentencing hearing. Woodward characterized Oren as a once brilliant physician who was well published and respected.

"Then the wheels fell off so to speak," said Woodward, who argued for leniency on behalf of Oren. "He will never ever practice medicine again. This is something he loved."

Oren's only daughter, Tasha, testified her father "disintegrated" and suffered intense grief that he could not overcome after the death of his wife. Dr. Steven Samuel, a psychologist who evaluated Oren, testified Oren suffered from major depression and a bereavement disorder and viewed his life as hopeless and helpless.

"He was in a very desperate state of mind," Samuel concluded about Oren, maintaining the inappropriate conduct occurred at a time when Oren was "an impaired physician."

But Friter downplayed Oren's claims of bereavement, saying trial testimony revealed Oren was operating a "very busy practice" on a day to day basis with thousands of patients and appeared jovial in the office.

The Pennsylvania Sexual Offender Assessment Board evaluated Oren and determined he did not meet criteria under Megan's Law to be declared a sexually violent predator. Testimony revealed Oren previously served two years in a federal prison on unrelated charges.

During the trial, five women, expressing disgust, embarrassment and shock, confronted Oren in court and testified he groped or sexually assaulted them during their visits to his Conshohocken office.

The women were between 24 and 59 years of age and resided throughout Montgomery County. Authorities said Oren operated the business for about 10 years.

The women told jurors that Oren made sexually suggestive comments to them as he used a massager on their bodies, under the premise of breaking up fat on their thighs, and touched them on intimate parts of their bodies and sexually assaulted them with the massager and his hand.

One woman testified for prosecutors that Oren grabbed her hand and placed it briefly on his genital area and said, "Well, if you need a man, I'm a man," after suggesting that sexual activity can "burn 200 calories."

But at trial Oren claimed his use of cream and a massaging device to treat women suffering from cellulite was proper medical procedure and he adamantly denied touching the genitals of the women.